R6 (SEPTA)

The SEPTA R6 is a route of the US SEPTA Regional Rail (commuter rail) system. One end of the route terminates in the western suburbs in the Bala Cynwyd section of Lower Merion Township, while the other end terminates at Elm Street in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Since the early 1990s, the line has operated with limited weekday service between Suburban Station to Bala Cynwyd, with regular 7-day service between 30th Street Station and Norristown. SEPTA and the Berks Area Rapid Transit Authority (BARTA) entered an agreement to build the Schuylkill Valley Metro, a 62-mile two-track electrified commuter rail line system that would have used both sides of the R6 system. This project never progressed past planning stages, never secured funding and has now been superseded by a study by Mongomery County to extend conventional commuter rail along the R6 corridor to Readingcite web|publisher=MCPC|year=2008|title=R6 Extension Study|url=http://www.r6extension.com/] . SEPTA has also not elected to restore the discontinued R6 commuter rail service over the Manayunk arch viaduct, despite its feasibility.Fact|date=May 2008

R6 Cynwyd

The R6 Cynwyd line is the shortest and has the lowest ridership of all of the SEPTA Regional Rail lines. It was truncated on October 25, 1986 to Cynwyd due to concerns about a concrete arch viaduct over the Schuylkill River in the Manayunk section of the city. This bridge was shedding pieces of concrete due to spalling. Further investigation by Urban Engineers determined that the bridge was safe and only needed surface work to stop the spalling. In 1999, construction finished on a project to stabilize and refurbish the bridge.

Electrified service was opened between Philadelphia and Norristown (Haws Avenue) on June 20, 1930. Plans for electrification beyond Norristown, to Phoenixville, were not carried out. Passenger service ended between Manayunk and Norristown on October 29, 1960 and the line beyond Manayunk was de-electrified, although the pylons remain (and maintained, as they provide power on both of Amtrak's Northeast and Keystone Corridors. Service was extended from Manayunk to Ivy Ridge, to serve a new park-and-ride lot, on October 26, 1980, but then curtailed to Cynwyd exactly six years later. The line to Norristown and Pottsville, Pennsylvania as a long-distance line, was largely abandoned after the formation of Conrail in 1976 (the right-of-way has since been converted to a multi-purpose trail).

As of 2007, this route, similar to the Princeton Junction's "Dinky," is served by a single-car electric multiple unit train that departs from a terminal track in Suburban Station, stops at 30th Street Station, and continues along the R5 Paoli-Thorndale line as far as the 52nd Street Junction where it branches off on a single track line to Wynnefield Avenue in Philadelphia. It continues on to Bala station, on City Avenue (U.S. Route 1), and Cynwyd station, less than a mile northwest. Until October 25, 1986, the train would have continued north over the massive concrete Manayunk bridge and viaduct to Ivy Ridge, a park-and-ride station located northwest of Manayunk.

In the late 1990s and up to 2003, SEPTA funded a study called the Schuylkill Valley Metro which included plans to extend both sides of the R6 line to Pottstown, Reading and Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. The project suffered a major setback when it was rejected by the FTA New Starts program, which cited doubts about the ridership projections and financing assumptions used by the study. [http://www.fta.dot.gov/documents/PA_Philadelphia_Schuylkill_Valley_Metro_(1).doc]

List of stations:

Ridership on the Norristown line has increased 63% from 1995 to 2005. This is the second largest percentage increase after the Cynwyd line, and represents an addition of almost 3,000 daily passengers. With the new residential construction near train stations at Norristown, Conshohocken, Ivy Ridge, Manayunk, and East Falls, ridership is projected to continue increasing in 2006 and 2007. From SEPTA Annual Service Plans:Ridership in 1993 was affected by RailWorks, which shut down the line for several months that year. Most commuters found alternative means of transportation during and after the shutdown.

References

* Federal Transit Administration. (2006) [http://www.fta.dot.gov/documents/PA_Philadelphia_Schuylkill_Valley_Metro_(1).doc Annual Report on New Starts, Appendix A]